Sentence examples for starfish from inspiring English sources

The study did say that storms, starfish attacks and coral bleaching were responsible for the dramatic loss of coral cover on the reef.

Killing starfish is akin to swatting a locust storm with a butterfly net.

The major culprits, the study said, were attacks by Crown of Thorns starfish, destruction from cyclones and coral bleaching.

The culprits are storms (48 per cent), crown of thorns starfish (42 per cent) and coral bleaching (10 per cent).

The reef will also be aided by an $89m boost to programs such as the Reef Trust, a Coalition plan to improve water quality and tackle threats such as a plague of starfish which has devoured much of the reef's coral.

Rotational symmetry means that if you turn something through a fixed angle, it looks the same (as a starfish would if you turned it through a fifth of a circle).

Oysters have relatively few natural predators: mainly starfish, which attach themselves to the shell with multitudinous teeth and patiently chew through, and the oyster drill, a species of carnivorous snail that attaches itself to a mollusc shell with a multi-toothed organ and inserts its proboscis, which releases enzymes that digest the creature in its home, making it easy to hoover up.

Rising sea temperatures and acidification, both linked to global warming; and nutrients and pesticides washed from farms into its waters, help to feed coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (see box).

It has killed more than 300,000 starfish in its first year of use.In this section End of the affair Lurch to illiberalism Sunflower seeds The pink and the saffron Judgment day Coral-killers ReprintsUnfortunately, that is only a fraction of the tens of millions of crown-of-thorns starfish thought to inhabit the entire reef.

Efforts to cull the starfish have had some success, but a better approach would be to reduce agricultural run-off and thus cut the banquet enjoyed by the larvae.

"Dredging would have cleared out the starfish," he says.Mr Campbell says that islanders often feel powerless up against the wealth and influence of the conservation bodies.